IA decisions in net magazine: why not match up the browser icons?

Since the net magazine rebrand a few months ago the projects section of the magazine, which is printed on a rougher paper to distinguish itself more easily from the glossier feature articles, often includes a handy guide to which browsers a particular technology supports.

The infographic shows desktop browser support on the left, mobile/tablet support on the right. But in the spirit of Steve Krug’s book Don’t me me think, the way it is currently laid out has me thinking too much. I want to know what their design reasoning is.

Here is an example from the current issue (May 2014), from an article on page 84 called “Slash design/build time with proportional RWD”:

Why don’t the icons match up? This just makes me think too hard.

But whenever I see this it always makes me wonder why they have not matched up the icons. What is the order being shown here? It’s really not obvious to me. It’s not alphabetical, it’s not by version number, or popularity.

Why not simply show a comparison between desktop version and its comparable mobile version, and then any left over can be arranged at the bottom?

I often find myself thinking, “Okay, so this feature is supported from Chrome version 6 onwards, but from which version of mobile Chrome is this supported?” And then I have to go hunting for the Chrome icon on the right-hand list.

Why not match the icons up, like this?

…and relax! The top four icons are matched, leaving the unique browsers to fight it out at the bottom

That makes it much easier for me to read. My five year old Joshua thinks this makes more sense. What do you think?

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Gareth Saunders

I’m Gareth J M Saunders, 46 years old, 6′ 4″, father of 3 boys (including twins).
Latterly, web architect and agile project manager at the University of St Andrews and warden at Agnes Blackadder Hall. Currently on sabbatical.
I am a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, and I sing with the NYCGB alumni choir.
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